Thesis draft II: Modern Technology & Social Change

Society is always adapting and modifying to the environment around it. Technology has just helped it along in the past century; our modern generation thrives on it. All you need to do is step out of your home to see this. It’s impossible to go almost anywhere and not see individuals using cell phones, driving in hybrid cars, or listening to music through iPods, just to name a few. One of the most powerful questions I have recently asked myself is; what did people do before the creation of the cell phone? Our society has advanced past that point and going backward is not a feasible option for most modern individuals. We see these small technological advances, but how many individuals actually realize the cultural shifts as they are created and used more often and are become more relied on? Society, culture and technology are ever-evolving; the United States and the world benefits from it.

            We see this in our American school systems; 98% of schools in the United States have computers in their schools, but the average ratio in 1997 of a student to a computer is 24 to 1, an all-time low (Coley, Cradler, & Engel, 1997). This began changing with the introduction to the one-to-one or laptop computer program that has been crisscrossing our country since 2008 (Zucker & Light, 2009). These programs are aimed to bring computers to every student in every school throughout the United States, and those that have these programs, have seen an increase in their academic scores. They have also seen an, “increase in student engagement, improved technology skills and a positive effect on students’ writing” (Zucker & Light, 2009).

            Some do not believe technology has made our society better for all and this has seemed to create a block between our society and some individuals, such as the American minorities and immigrants. Gómez-Peña has partially addressed this issue within her essay, “The Virtual Barrio @ the Other Frontier”. He states that the technological myth behind Mexicans and other Latinos in the United States are that they are incapable of understanding high technology, and that they are perceived by Americans as naïve within this category (Gómez-Peña, 2010). High Technology is defined as: scientific technology involving the production or use of advanced or sophisticated devices especially in the fields of electronics and computers (Britannica). Gómez-Peña has a unique perspective because he is Mexican-American, born in 1955 in Mexico City and not moving to the United States until 1978, when he was 23 (Gómez-Peña, 2010).

Mexico is technologically a poor country, especially in regards to computer and internet access; “Mexico is lagging behind in the Internet age. Just 28 percent of the population has Internet access. That puts Mexico behind Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina, where 30 percent to 40 percent of the population is connected online” (Villigran, 2011).  One conclusion a survey taken in 1996 established that, “Students usually learn more in classes in which they receive computer-based instruction” (Coley, Cradler, & Engel, 1997). This means most Mexicans who grew up in Mexico would have a hard time learning or understanding computers in the United States, since they did not grow up with them as U.S. modern citizens have.

            These tidbits of technological statements are important, but not so much to others across the world. On December 17, 2010, an Arab man in Tunisia, North Africa named, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the governor’s building in protest to government policies (Cohen, 2011). His protest was recorded on a cell phone and sent via Facebook, “Al-Jazeera, the Arab TV network, was alerted through Facebook. Along the way, Bouazizi, who did not even have a high-school diploma, cyber-morphed into a frustrated university graduate: that resonated in a nation where many graduates are jobless. This myth went round the world. Information moving this fast is inspired, rather than bound, by facts” (Cohen, 2011). This started the Middle Eastern riots that are still occurring today, now in Egypt and Syria (Louis & Sabah, 2011).

Because one man protested government rule, was recorded on a cell phone and sent to mass viewing by wireless internet, the politics of the Middle East may never be the same.  This gives pause to think what else technology may impact on other societies’ and cultures’ in the coming years.